Beer of the Week! 09/18/23

KCBC Venomous Villains

Normally $17.99 / Now on Sale for $16.96
West Coast Style IPA

Just this past week at our beer tasting, we got into a brief chat about how much the American craft IPA has changed in just the last few years.

The introduction of southern Pacific hops in New England Style IPAs, with their tropical fruit flavors, showed a path away from the Race to Bittermageddon that, for a couple of reasons, couldn’t have been (and, some people thought, shouldn’t have been) sustained.

Even as the taste pendulum now swings back from the Journey into Juiciness, many of today’s West Coast IPAs that purport to be “throwbacks” or “walks down memory lane” still mix in some fruity or floral notes into their pine and citrus flare. This practice is so much the case that people who long ago decided that they don’t like IPAs are pleasantly surprised to find them quite drinkable. Approachability, variety, nuance, balance — those seem to be today’s watch words.

With their Venomous Villains, Brooklyn’s KCBC Brewing Company says, “$&%@ that %^#@!”

Brewed with “an abundance” of Mosaic, Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial, and Cascade hops, the Venomous Villains so does not care about your delicate sensibilities. You’re immediately greeted with pine on the nose before being thrown into deep pine and lime citrus street fight on the palate that turns into resonating (resinating) buzz on the finish.

For all the “throwbacks” and “memory lanes,” THIS is a West Coast Style IPA!

Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause COVID can’t be the only thing that comes around again.)

Port City Pizza Night

Normally $11.99 / Now on Sale for $10.96
Polotmavý Style Lager

Just when we thought the only type of lager coming out of Czech was the Pilsner, here comes Alexandria’s Port City Brewing Company to say, “Ah, no. That assumption is very wrong.”

In Czech, “Polotmavý” means “half-dark” or “semi-dark.” They use the word for their version of amber lager, which is deeper in malt and can have more pronounced hops than the neighboring style in Vienna.

The Pizza Night is a deep amber color coming out of a moderate and dry malt body favored by citrusy Czech hops. Leaving the beer unfiltered, Port City lagers the brew for three months, giving it time to naturally clear before bottling. It’s nice, but we see it more with popcorn than pizza. Don’t know … a veggie pizza could work nicely — maybe one of those veggie yuppie frou-frou pies from the downtown slice slingers, something with sun-dried tomatoes and breaded eggplant. Yeah, that could work. That could work quite nicely.

Remember!

You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!